Hitchcock, a local
foods fine-dining restaurant that opened on Winslow Way last year,
is in talks to expand into the next-door space recently occupied by
a bath supply boutique.

“I’ve got some big plans for a business that would be an
extension of Hitchcock, philosophically, but deliver the products
we’ve worked so hard to procure over the last year to consumers in
a different way,” said owner/chef Brendan McGill.

He said he’ll divulge specifics once a deal for the space is
finalized.

McGill is also expanding Hitchcock’s hours to include lunchtime
service. The focus will be on traditional Neopolitan pizzas made in
the restaurant’s wood-fired oven.

“Lunch is a good excuse to crank the oven up for pizzas – good,
fast lunch food,” he said.

Lunch service is offered now on weekends. Once the
reconstruction project is done this fall, Hitchcock will begin
serving lunch during weekdays.

I profiled Hitchcock last year when three restaurants
specializing in local foods opened at the same time in Winslow. One
of the restaurants closed a few months after opening. Its space
will soon open as a
wine bar. Local
Harvest is still going strong in the Pavilion. You can read
about the little boom in local food restaurants
here.

“Some evenings are more surprising than others. You sit
down, check your email, glance at that the blog stats and… wait
where did that massive spike in traffic come from? After a glance
at the incoming referrers you discover you’ve been nominated for a
“Best Food Blog” award by Saveur magazine. Really? That Saveur?
Really?”

Below is a sneak peak of my story about Bainbridge
Island’s community garden boom. Check the Sun on Monday for some
additional photos and information….

Dawn Snider is hoping to deepen the shade of her faded green
thumb.

It’s been almost three decades since she’s had a garden, but she
can still remember the taste of backyard tomatoes, squash and
herbs.

“It’s been a while, but I’m a gardener at heart,” the Minnesota
native said as she and her partner Bruce White spread a load of
rich, black soil into a small plot at the Johnson Farm community
garden.

After a long stint living in the high desert of New Mexico,
Snider and White recently moved to Bainbridge looking for an oasis
of green.

The only problem was that their small patch of Bainbridge was
crowded by concrete.

“We’re living in a townhouse in Winslow, with no yard and no
room to garden,” she said.

Snider and White were ready to be caught up in a sudden burst of
grassroots organizing to create community gardens on Bainbridge.
Over the last few months, neighborhood and small-group gardens have
taken shape on city-owned farmland, a low-income apartment complex
and a half dozen private properties.

A gathering on March 2 provided the spark. Organized by a loose
coalition of gardening groups and local food enthusiasts, the
meeting didn’t have a specific aim, but it packed Bainbridge
Commons with over 110 people.

“I was totally blown away by the response,” said Debbi Lester,
one of the meeting’s organizers. Before meeting ended, attendees
had already begun networking, assigning tasks and setting work
dates for several of the gardens now underway.

The meeting, Lester said, tapped into a zeitgeist born out of
souring economy, an increasingly urbanized downtown and a growing
desire to eat healthy, locally-grown food.

Nationwide, more people are planting seeds for better food and
bigger savings. The National Gardening Association reports that
over 40 million American households will grow their own food this
year. That’s a nearly 20 percent increase over last year.

Straddling the fence between suburban and rural, the island has
plenty of spacious properties boasting sizable gardens. But many of
the island’s most recent residents came to Bainbridge amid the
condo boom of 2005 and 2006, when 330 units were built in
Winslow.

With no space to enjoy one of the island’s most popular
pastimes, condo dwellers were disappointed to find that the only
two community gardens were either hard to get to or hard to get
into; the garden at Battle Point Park is five miles from Winlsow
and the downtown garden at Eagle Harbor Congregational Church often
has a three-year wait list.

The Bainbridge Farmers Market
kicks off another season this Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the
park between City Hall and Bainbridge Performing Arts.

Local farmers say crops are taking a little longer to grow
because of unpredictable weather. Many are waiting for temperatures
to warm up before they can offer their usual spring bounty.

“It’s a slower growing season this year, even slower than last
year,” Jackie Aitchison, executive director of the Washington
Farmers Market Association, told Sun reporter Brynn Grimley for
a story this week on the county’s markets.

Despite this season’s weather challenges, the Bainbridge
market’s growers told Sound Food’s Carolyn Goodwin that customers
can expect some popular offerings on Saturday.

Early offerings will be mostly in the hardy greens
category. But a fresh local salad tastes amazingly good after a
winter of grocery greens. Crumble some creamy Port Madison Farm
goat cheese over the top and you’ll finally get a taste of
spring.

Butler Green Farm also has spinach, bok choy, leeks and
carrots. Our favorite Island food blog, Small Potatoes, recently
posted a tasty recipe for Spinach Pie that would be a perfect way
to celebrate your first bag of local spinach. Brian’s bok choy is
fabulous, this week I steamed it with some shiitake mushrooms and
cod fillets in a super-simple recipe that is wonderful over some
brown basmati rice. It will be even better with some of the fresh
halibut that just hit T&C this week.

Betsey Wittick of Laughing Crow Farm will bring some
overwintered potatoes and cabbage (I’m working through the box of
German Butterball potatoes I bought from her at the end of last
season, and they still make great eating). Rebecca Slattery of
Persephone Farm always has some interesting early-season crops like
cardoons, which are at their best in the late winter.

Read the rest of Goodwin’s post, as well as several recipes
using local ingredients, at Sound Food’s Web
site.